Turbine.



A. PFAU.

TURBINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.27,1907.

99,559, I Patented Sept. 29, 1908.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

WITNESSES.-

INVENTOR Wag By 7 6,240 ATTORNEY.

A; PFAU.

TURBINE. APPLICATION FILED 11113.27, 1907. 899,559. Patented Sept. 29, 1908.

2 SHEETS-SHEET Q 23% wow;

UNITED STATES OFFICE. ARNOLD PFAU, OFIMILWAUKEEQWISCONSIN, AssI'cNon TO Arms-cHALMERs COMPANY, OF

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

-,'1-URIBINE.

.Specificationof Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 29, 1908.

Application filed March 27, 1907. Serial No. 36 1,7851.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARNOLD PFAU, a citizen of the Republic of Switzerland, residing at Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin, have invented a certain new and useful Turbine, of which the fol:

lowing is a specification.

This invention relates to turbines, fans,

pumps andsimilar apparatus which areactuated by a fluid or which force a fluid, and

the purpose of this invention is 'to provide a,

structure by which the end thrust on the shaft or spindle is automatically balanced by the action of the apparatus itself, whereby damage to the apparatus may be avoided'and thrust bearings may be dispensed with. It

is immaterial whether such end thrust be caused by an application of load to a turbine. or the release of the load therefrom, or

Whether it be caused by static pressure or the kinetic energy of a fluid, by gear conirections or otherwise. I

Specifically, this invention comprises a structure of apparatuswhich is provided with a chamber to which fluid under pressure, specifically thelfluid which operates the apparatus or the fluid forced thereby, is admitted to act with an endwise thrust against the spindle or a piston thereon, the entrance to and the escape from said chamber being governed by the movements of the spindle itself,

the entrance and exhaust passages being opened and closed in inverse order so that the fluid is permitted to'accuinulate in said chamber underpress'u're or is permitted to exhaust 'freely'therefrom.

Referring to the drawings which accompany this specification and form a part there-.'

of, and which illustrateembodiments,of this invention as applied-t0 an ordinary type of steam turbine, and on which drawings the same reference charactersare used to designate the same elements wherever they may appear in each of the several views, Figure 1 'is an illustration in vertical longitudinal section of a steam turbine embodying this different diameters to correspond with the several stages formed by the casing and being supported by the shaft extensions 6 and 7., which pass through the glands 8 and 9 of the casing, and which may. be sup' orted inv any suitable orpreferred Way. Al of the Mounted within the casing 1 is the spindle 5 which is shown more or less diagrammatic-v ally by the drawings,-tl1is-spindle being provided with'the severalportions D, E, F of parts just enumerated maybe of any ordi- V nary or preferred construction.

,- The casing 1 is provided at the high pressure end with the abutment 10 which'is-int the form of a ring, the inner periphery 11 of which is preferably spaced from the spindle 5; and arranged concentric therewith. Se-.

cured to the casing andon the outside them of with respect to ring 10, is a casing IZ-Which may be formed as a separate member and attached to the casing 1 or may be formed integral therewith, this casing 12 providing a chamber 13.

A ring or piston '14 is secured to thespindle 5, preferably by being formed as an ill- 30 tegral part thereof, and this piston is located within the chamber 13 with a part thereof,- as, for example, the face 15,- located' adjacent the ring 10, the piston 14 forming'a division wall between the steam space 16 of the turbine and the chamber 13,- and being acted upon by the steam in steam space 16 and by the steam in the chamber 13. The casing dle 5 is preferably formed with ,a corresponde '12 is also provided with a projection ex-, tending toward the spmdle 5, and thespining projection 18, the casing 12 betweenthe shaft 6 and said projection 17 being provided with a chamber 19, to which steamcanflowfrom the steam space 16 of the turbine by passing through the passageway 20 existing between the ring 10 and the part 15'0f the piston 14, through chamber 13- and the passageway 21 existing between the projections 17 and 18. The ring 10 and part 15 of the piston 14, and the projections 17 and 18 form in effect valves which control the flow of steam through ,the passages 20 and 21 by increasing or diminishing the thoroughfare through said passages respectively.

The numeral 22. designates a pipe or conduit which is in communication with the chamber 19 and serves to connect said cham ber either with the atmosphere, or prefer.-

ably, with the main exhaust pipe- 4 of the to the right, the passageway 20 will be enlarged, steam will pass freely into the chamber 13, but as the movement of the spindle contracted passageway 21, the steam cannot escape from said chamber as readily as it enters it, and the consequence is that the pressures existing in steam space 16 and chamber 13 become substantially equalized, and as the steamin chamber 13 acts upon the end surfaceof the spindle 5 included between the periphery of the spindle (indicated by dotted lines aa), and the circle formed by projection 18, the spindle 5 will be forced to the left, provided the surface exposed to this pressure is large enough so that the-pressure upon it exceeds the force tending to thrust the spindle to the right. Under these conditions the piston 14 projecting outwardly from the periphery of the spindle 5 (indicated by the dotted lines aa), is subjected on each side to substantially the same pressure and does not exert any force in either direction. If, on the contrary, a force is exerted now to force the spindle 5 to the left, the thoroughfare 20 will be diminished, thoroughfare 21 will be increased, and the steam cannot so readily ass from steam s ace 16 into chamber 13, ut the steam in c amber 13 can readily expand and escape through thoroughfare 21 and pipe 22, whereby the pressure is reduced in chamber 13, but the full steam ressure in steam space 16 is acting against t e piston 14, tending to force the spindle to the right. By suitably adjusting the valve closure 24 of the valve 23 so that the' thoroughfare through said valve is more or less throttled, the esca e of steam. from chamber 13 can be so regu ated that theso-called hunting of the spindle may be practically avoided. The permissible movement of the spindle 5 is, of course, less than the amount of clearancebetween the blades which it carries and the blades carried by the casing 1, and as these spindles are comparatively heavy, and the movement required and desired to admit the steam to or release it from the chamber 13 is com aratively slight, excessive hunting shou d be avoided.

The apparatus shown by Fig. 2 of the drawings is in all substantial particulars the same as that shown by Fig. 1, and it does not require explanation except as to the modification shown. The shaft 6 in this construction is provided with a collar 25 secured thereto, Within the groove 26 of which are received the pins 27 of a forked lever 28, provided with a suitably sup orted pivot 29.

0 this lever 28 is secured t e valve rod 30 secured to the slidable valve 31 which controls the port or thoroughfare 210, which thoroughfare corresponds in function to the thoroughfare 21 shown by the apparatus disclosed by Fig. 1 of the drawings, the projcctions 17 and 18 shown by Fig. 1 bein dispensed with in the modification and the valve 31 being substituted therefor. The operation of this form of the ap aratus is in all respects similar to that of t 1e preferred form described above, for as the spindle 5 moves to the right, the valve 31 diminishes the thoroughfare 210, and when the spindle 5 moves to the left, the valve 31 enlarges the thoroughfare 210.

What I claim is,-

.1. The combination with a casing, of a spindle rotatable therein, said spindle being provided with a piston, said casing being provided with a second casing and an abutment whereby a chamber is formed, said second casing being provided with a projection on the interior thereof with which said spindle is adapted to coact to enlarge 01' diminish a passageway existing therebetween, said piston being located in said chamber and said spindle and piston being adapted to approach said abutment while receding from said projection, or to approach said projection while receding from said abutment, whereby passageways existing between said abutment and said piston, and between said projection and saidspindle, are increased and diminished respectively by the movements of said spindle.

2. The combination with a casing, of a spindle rotatable therein, said spindle being provided with a piston, said casing being provided with a second casing and an abutment whereby a chamber is formed, said second casing being rovided with a projection on the interior tfiereof with which said spindle is adapted to coact to enlarge or diminish a passageway existing therebetween, said piston being located in said chamber and said spindle and piston being adapted to approach said abutment while receding from said projection, or to approach said projec tion while receding from said abutment whereby passageways existing between said abutment and said piston, and between said projection and said spindle, are increased and iminished respectively by the movements of said spindle, a conduit adapted to receive the fluid exhausted from said chamber, and a valve for controlling the thoroughfare through said conduit.

3. The combinatlon with a casing, of a spindle rotatable therein, said spindle being provided with a piston, said casing being provided with a second casing and an abutment whereby a chamber is formed, said piston being located in said chamber and provided with a projection adapted to coact with said second casing to enlarge or diminish a pas chamber is formed, said piston being located in said chamber and adapted to approach or recede from said abutment, whereby a passageway' existing between said piston and said abutment may be diminished or enlarged, a second passageway being provided between the spindle and said second casing at a point between the exterior surface of said spmdle and said shaft extensions, said second passageway being adapted to be diminished by a movement of said spindle which enlarges said first mentioned passageway, and to be enlarged by a..movement of said spindle which diminishes said first mentioned passageway.

5. The combination with a casing, of a spindle rotatable therein, said spindle being provided with a piston, said casing being provided with a second casing and an abutment whereby a chamber is formed, said piston being located in said chamber and movable to approach or recede from said abutment to permit the steam to act upon one side thereof to force the s indle in one direction or to act upon both si es thereof to equalize the pressures exerted upon'both sides of said piston, said s indlebeing provided with an end surface t at may be exposed to steam under pressure when the pressures of the steam on opposite sides of sald piston are equalized.

6. In a turbine, the combination of an endwise movable rotor having blades upon which the working fluid causes 'an end pressure, a casing surrounding said rotor and having blades alternating with the blades of the rotor, said rotor havingan end surface exposable to fluid pressure in the same direction as the end pressure caused by the working fluid, and abutment on the rotor at times coacting with the casing to control the exposure ofsaid surface to fluid pressure as required to balance said rotor and also to prevent blowing outof fluid pressure to the ex haust.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

ARNOLD PFAU. Witnesses:

G.'F. DE WEIN, JAcoB JACOBSEN. 

